By Prof PB Sharma and Sanskrit Sharma n1o2d
As India moves forward on the pathways of rapid track sustainable development as the largest democracy of the world, it needs to effectively capitalise its “Advantage India” that lies in its over 660 million youth between the age group of 15-29 years. It is this vast pool of Young India that needs both the technology skills as well as the character skills of integrity, responsibility, and ability akin to the clarion calls of Viksit Bharat of our dreams.
Skilling Youth with AI and Digital Skills:
Young India needs to be empowered with digital skills in a hyper-connected world, of which India is one of the most promising leaders in the age of Artificial Intelligence, AI. These AI and Digital skills are required all across the board for all sectors of the economy.
New Skill Infrastructure Urgently Needed:
The current level of skilling infrastructure and the skilling ecosystem in India requires a paradigm shift both in respect of content as well as in the delivery systems being adopted at present.
The mass scale skilling by organising workshops or seminars or even skill camps is no answer to the skilling needs of AI and digital skills, nor is a solution to seriously align the conduct and character of Young India to the needs of integrity, responsibility and sustainability, the ‘holy trinity’ of the New Age.
Skill Universities need a Redesign:
The initiative of the state governments in India to establish skill universities in public and private domains, though sounds good at the first instant, may end up with unemployable skill degree holders unless these skill universities change their approach of imparting skills to the inspired young minds who come to these skill universities to get the experience and exposure to the hi-tech digital skills and their practice for the most modern manufacturing and service applications.
The design and delivery system for skill programs must necessarily differ from the traditional knowledge-based degree programs of today’s forward-looking universities and institutions of higher learning.
Future Readiness to be the Mantra:
The primary goal of a Skill University should be to produce graduates who are immediately employable, job-ready, and possess the higher-end digital skills so much needed in the workplace today by employers. These universities should necessarily emphasize fostering internships in industry, on learning by doing, and activity-based learning a lot more than ‘learning to know’ and know deeply, as the conventional universities usually are accustomed to providing.
The outcome of a skill university has to necessarily be a ready-to-run a kind of industry or service sector workforce that not only has the skills of today but is also capable of self-empowerment with the skill sets of the future in the industry or a service organisation.
Catch them Young from School Onward:
Ideally, the interest in skills of the new age should be cultivated from the school level onward. There was a time when India had technical schools which focused at that time on skill-based learning of engineering and technology. These students, after ing their technical schools, became highly successful engineering and technology graduates once they ed their degree programs.
Skilling Youth Should Be a National Priority:
Today, when we are in an era that requires competency, calibre and character to work alongside smart and intelligent machines, robots and humanoids, the importance of skilling Young India cannot be overemphasised.
It would be highly desirable for the universities and colleges in India to establish multifunctional, multi-sectoral skill centres and high-tech skill towers to empower the youth of India with skill sets for the future-ready workforce that the Viskit Bharat@2047 mission so well requires.
World Youth Skills Day 2025:
The UN World Youth Skills Day 2025, celebrated throughout the world each year on July 15, has given a call to “Youth empowerment through AI and Digital Skills” as its theme for this year. This is in line with the needs of Industry 4.0 and Service Sector 5.0 that require empowerment of youth with next-generation AI and digital skills embedded with the character skills of sustainability, integrity, and responsibility that the new age so much requires to create a green and blissful future for the world community.
Let skilling Youth be a matter of great national priority and let India take a lead in redeg it’s skill infrastructure for the New Age learners.
Authors Prof PB Sharma is a renowned academician, past President of AIU, Founder Vice Chancellor of DTU, and currently Vice Chancellor of Amity University Gurugram, and Sanskrit Sharma is an 11th class student at Amity International School.
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